Police arrest woman on suspicion of first-degree murder after body discovered in Rochester Heights Park

Spokane police arrested a woman on suspicion of first-degree murder after the body of a man was discovered in northeast Spokane on Friday.

Rose Sedin, 31, was arrested Saturday.

A passerby discovered the body of a man, identified in court documents as 53-year-old James Clark, in the grass on Friday morning. The body had suffered “obvious trauma from a cutting instrument,” police said.

Clark had moved out of his apartment and planned to move to Camp Hope the day before he died, according to a witness statement in a probable cause affidavit.

Multiple recordings of security footage from around the park appeared to show two people walk into frame from the north of Rochester Heights Park around 10:50 a.m., the probable cause affidavit said. A few minutes later, one of the people took the other one down into the grass for about 8 minutes, before walking away from the person still lying in the grass, according to the affidavit.

Security footage from Rowan Avenue showed a woman walking east with what appeared to be wet blood on her right hand and extending up her elbow.

Police found Sedin about a mile away at Rich Avenue and Regal Street a few hours after the security footage captured the incident. She was wearing similar clothing to the woman on the security footage, the affidavit said.

Sedin was arrested at about 10 p.m. on Saturday.